EXCLUSIVE: Forest Whitaker has been set to star alongside Johnny Depp in LAbyrinth, the Brad Furman-directed drama about the investigation into the murders of Tupac Shakur and Notorious BIG. Depp plays a disgraced LAPD detective who is unable to solve his biggest case: the murders of the hip-hop icons. Whitaker will play the journalist who teams with the cop, each determined to find the truth, and each with a reason to seek redemption in an effort that sets them against the cops.

Open Road Films recently picked up distribution rights to the film, which started as a Black List script by Christian Contreras, adapted from Randall Sullivan’s book. Miriam Segal and her Good Films label are producing.

Whitaker, who just opened in the Denis Villenueve-directed Arrival, is in the midst of an exceptionally prolific cycle. He co-stars in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and just finished starring with Garrett Hedlund and Tom Wilkinson in Burden, the drama based on a true story about the KKK. Next up, he will play Bishop Desmond Tutu in the biopic The Forgiven, which also stars Eric Bana. After that, he joins Chadwick Boseman and Lupita Nyong’o in the Ryan Coogler-directed Black Panther for Marvel next year.